ISSN 2045‐256X Children and Internet use: A comparative analysis of Brazil and seven European countries Maria Eugenia Sozio, Cristina Ponte, Inês Vitorino Sampaio, Fabio Senne, Kjartan Ólafsson, Suzana Jaíze Alves and Camila Garroux Contributors: Alexandre Barbosa and Giovanna Mascheroni Summary This is more than twice what was reported in Romania, Ireland, Portugal and Belgium. In The present cross-country report focuses on 2013, Internet access in LAN houses was lower the Internet access and use reported by 9- to than in 2012, whereas access from public 16-year-olds in the ICT Kids Online Brazil libraries and telecenters continued to be survey and in seven European countries minimal. In Brazil, desktop computers were (Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, found to be the most common devices for going Romania and the UK) as part of the project Net online, followed by mobile phones – reported Children Go Mobile. Conducted between 2013 by more than half of the users. Laptops, the and 2014, the surveys adopted questions that leading devices in Denmark, Portugal, Italy, were quite similar, allowing for comparison of Ireland and Belgium, ranked third in Brazil. the results. The Brazilian dataset was also compared with the results achieved in the first The most reported form of Internet connection wave of the ICT Kids Online Brazil survey in Brazil was mobile web packages, similar to (2012). The comparison showed rapid shifts in the Romanian results. The combination of these Internet access towards going online via packages and free Wi-Fi was reported by about mobile devices and at home and the one out of three young Brazilian Internet users, persistence of socioeconomic gaps in access ranking third among the eight countries. to the Internet. The top five activities reported across countries The child’s home was the most common pointed to the dominance of activities such as location for Internet use across all countries. visiting social networking sites and watching The trend towards more private access to the video clips across groups of 11- to 16-year- web in the home, in the child’s bedroom, or olds. The Brazilian results revealed the highest other private rooms was mentioned by more percentage of 9- and 10-year-olds with social than half of the young Brazilian Internet users. networking site (SNS) profiles and one of the Accessing the Internet from relatives’ or highest positions among children 11 and 12 friends’ households was also reported by half years old among the eight countries. More than of the Brazilian users. Around one-third of the half of the young Brazilian Internet users Brazilian children reported accessing the claimed to have more than 100 contacts in their Internet at school, the second lowest value main SNS profiles (Facebook, in 2014); a among the eight countries after Italy. quarter said that they had over 300 contacts. In this regard, both figures were led by Romania. The growing trend toward mobility was Most Brazilian children with SNS profiles particularly clear in Brazil: one out of three reported that they were set to public, ranking children accessed the Internet on the move. second after Romania. www.eukidsonline.net July 2015 1 under 18 years old make up around a third of the total Gender was found to have a clear influence in 1 almost all countries, with girls tending to population, as shown by official statistics. present their profiles as private much more For parents, teachers and professionals who interact often than boys. Despite having private profiles, with children, the speed and intensity with which mobile these girls tended to disclose more information devices have invaded children's routines have about themselves, such as personal photos, full contributed to, and at the same time presented names and personal addresses. challenges to, young people's development and security. For organized child social movements, this The conclusions of this report include process has introduced new requirements for recommendations targeted to: families (children establishing inclusive, protective and regulatory and parents); educators, awareness raisers and policies. the media; government and industries. Additionally, just as Brazilian society continues to be challenged by the need to promote digital inclusion, a INTRODUCTION new agenda has emerged in the face of rising Internet penetration, particularly through mobile devices. It is Brazil has a population of over 200 million. Any important to formulate information and communications discussion of children and their relationship with mobile policies that are in line with the complexity of such media and devices must consider the country's vast interests that also prioritize children, as set out in the regional, socioeconomic, and cultural diversity. While Brazilian Constitution. there are still huge challenges in facing the digital divide, Brazilian children conform to the global trend Inequalities in Internet access and use in toward growing up in a media-saturated environment Brazil that is notable for the ever-growing presence of mobile The ICT Households 2013 survey, conducted since devices (CGI.br, 2014b). This trend has already been 2005 by the Regional Center for Studies on the highlighted in recent national studies undertaken in Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), Europe, such as the Net Children Go Mobile project, pointed to an increase in the proportion of Internet (Mascheroni and Cuman, 2014), and in the United users, which exceeded half the population for the first States, such as the Teens and Technology 2013 report time. However, a remarkable difference was found in (Madden et al., 2013). This section briefly presents key user age profiles: among 10- to 15-year-olds, the issues in the Brazilian digital context in the light of proportion of Internet users reached 75%; among 16- children’s digital rights to protection, provision and to 24-year-olds, it was 77%. Nonetheless, although the participation. percentage of Internet users between 10 and 15 years old was above the average for the general population, The data from the present report show increased use it is worth emphasizing that one out of four people in of mobile devices, such as laptops, tablets and mobile this age group was still excluded from the online world: phones, by young Brazilian Internet users. Other the ICT Households 2013 survey estimated that around studies have also demonstrated that mobile devices 5.1 million children between 10 and 15 years old were have transformed social structures, socialization, not Internet users (CGI.br, 2014b). In this regard, connectivity, leisure, learning and discovery for certain among the children who had never accessed the web, age groups: Aside from having relatively easy access 48% reported never having done so due to difficulties to areas that were previously adult-only (Meyrowitz, in acquiring and affording Internet access (CGI.br, 2003), children also experience new dynamics of 2014b). inclusion or exclusion among peer groups, with all the concurrent risks and opportunities (Bond, 2010; Compared to the proportion of Internet users in Vincent, 2014). selected Latin American countries, Brazil is at an intermediate level. Whereas in Chile and Argentina The growth in mobile device use in Brazil has also over 60% of the population are Internet users, in become an unequalled business opportunity for industry sectors and for advertising companies, 1 Further information can be found at: especially within the children's sector, given that those http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/censo201 0/tabelas_pdf/Brasil_tab_1_12.pdf www.eukidsonline.net July 2015 2 Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, indicated their motivation to provide children with Ecuador and Bolivia this proportion reaches between mobile devices as tools to enable parental control and 40% and 60% (ITU, 2014). In Brazil, inequalities in opportunities for digital inclusion. On the other hand, household Internet access based on social class and they expressed concern about the new dynamics region persist. The proportion of households with arising from access to mobile devices, including much access to the Internet was 81% for high SES and 8% easier access for young people to content considered for low SES. In urban areas, the proportion of inappropriate, such as cyberbullying, exposure to households with Internet access was 48%, while it was advertising, and contact with strangers (Haddon and 15% in rural areas (CGI.br, 2014b). Vincent, 2014). Research has also pointed out that Internet use on Life in this new communication landscape also mobile phones is rapidly increasing. The ICT challenges notions of authority, trust, friendship, and Households 2013 survey estimated that 52.5 million living with others (Meyrowitz, 2003). As already Brazilians used the Internet on mobile phones, which demonstrated by the EU Kids Online surveys, amounted to 31% of the total population. This children’s use of the Internet brings about both proportion more than doubled the figure for 2011 opportunities and risks. Exploring wider opportunities (15%). The survey also found that 30% of mobile entails increased likelihood of running risks, and phone users accessed social media on those devices; conversely, not taking those risks may mean missing 26% shared photos, videos or text; 25% accessed e- opportunities (Livingstone and Helsper, 2010). More mail; and 23% downloaded apps (CGI.br, 2014b). recent studies comparing data from 2010 and 2014 have extended